Time management and remote working
In a previous article, I mentioned one of the management methods I had implemented with my last team: Our monthly forecast meeting. I would like to come back to this topic to share my experience.
No data, no forecast
I often had to manage teams that either had a support function, or had to split their time between "recurring" and "deliverable" activities (e.g., manual test campaign vs. automated test creation). Some of these activities can therefore be planned in advance (in "project" mode), and some can not (typically, user support in configuration management). The difficulty then becomes giving accurate delivery forecasts for the "project" activities, in addition to estimating the effort required.
The method I find most effective for making a correct forecast is to base it on past data. So, in my team, we were using data from the previous 6 months: If you have spent the last 6 months using 40% of your time on average doing support, there is a good chance that history will repeat itself, and a deliverable with an estimated effort of 10 days will not be delivered in 2 weeks. It will probably take you more than 3 weeks.
Time management is not for policing or billing
To collect this data, however, time sheets have to be filled in. There is often no appetite for this activity in teams, because employees can experience it as "scrutinizing" their activity. As a result, most are content to "fill in 8 hours a day", with a few categories ("project X", "project Y", "non-billable") that do not correspond to any reality and create no exploitable data for the manager.
So, it is very important to explain them that this is not the point, that the "raw" data will not be "shared" (neither with HR nor with the business), is internal to the team, and to involve them in the elaboration of their own time sheets. You want the employees to take ownership of the method and the goal. If I were to apply this method to a development team, I would define with them the time categories relevant to their activity. We can think of a few:
In addition, for the manager of this team, we would want to add the following categories:
We immediately can understand that some of these activities can be planned (in scrum mode or not), but some others will take an unknown amount of time (analysing/fixing bugs; level 3 support). But in the long term, we would be able to learn how much the latter activities "cost" on average and whether they overwhelm the team, for example.
All categories are important
"Miscellaneous" was used for self-organisation, emails, team / department meetings, etc... (For the manager, by the way, who schedules these meetings and writes down their minutes or the team reports, it would rather be in the "Team Management" category). In general, I estimated with my teams that "Miscellaneous" should not exceed 10 to 15%. In the long term, we found that when the "Miscellaneous" exceeded 15% for someone, it meant that the person was in difficulty and that there was a problem to be solved - often his or her activity was fragmented, which obliged him or her to move from one subject to another over very short periods. It then becomes difficult to 'categorise' his/her time, the number of emails exchanged about problems went through the roof and so a lot of time ended up categorized as 'Miscellaneous'. This is where an action by the manager to help the person becomes necessary: Provide training, help prioritise and plan, share tasks, etc.
It is important to let people organise themselves to fill in their time sheets. Some people do it as they go along, others prefer to do it at the end of the week (I still advise not to wait until the end of the month: It is difficult to remember where the time went and the data is no longer relevant). Daily record is probably preferable, but everyone is free to use their own system (personally, I "live in my calendar" and in addition I have a continuous log of my activities. This is clearly slightly OCD on my part, but I have never asked anyone in my team to do the same !).
Analyse the data with the team
What interests you as a manager is the aggregate to prepare the monthly forecast meeting. For that, however, you need the whole team to use the same system, and need the "categories" used by everyone to be consistent across the same tasks. We had developed together a small application to meet our needs during a period of self-training on the company's technology. But there are a lot of applications available on the market (I discovered that there were even digital time and attendance systems, but that's not the point of this article at all !).
The forecast meeting is a monthly gathering of the team to look at its recent history activities and is used to analyse the current data, and forecast the workload it will have in the coming months. Generally, the next month's prediction is roughly correct, the month after next less so, and the month even after that probably quite vague. It seems to us that trying to project beyond 3 months is very difficult to do accurately. For the manager, as well as helping the teams to make correct delivery forecasts, this meeting is used:
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What is important is to do this forecast meeting regularly, so that the timesheets make sense to the team. Too often, time sheets are only made to "invoice", and do not add any value to the employees themselves (besides being a very basic way of doing business - but that's another subject).
Time management is neither performance management nor office presence management
Individual time management:
Do you have very efficient people who manage to deliver their objectives without overtime and with a perfect work/life balance? Good for them and for you !
One of the advantages of remote working is also that it allows you to respect people's biological clock, and to get away from a rigid 9 to 6 schedule by offering more flexibility to your night owls or early birds.
Some people are more efficient at certain activities, by experience or preference. So not all your engineers are going to be 40% support / 40% project / 20% everything else. Understanding the differences is important (perhaps someone is not comfortable with Support activities and spends too much/not enough time there). Note that once a person has found his/her "rhythm" between the different activities, it is not easy to change it. I found it requires concrete action from the manager. But this may not be necessary: If the team's output is globally satisfactory, having a diverse team is an asset !
Finally, it's very important to manage by example: If you ask your team to do timesheets, participate and fill them in yourselves. You will also learn a lot about where your own time goes.
What about remote working? Unfortunately, the current trend of "hybrid" work, which requires X days in the office per week, is a (poor) substitute for time management in teams. Enforcing office attendance gives an illusion of control to managers who do not practice real time management with their teams. In fact, they may have no idea what their employees spend their time on, whether in the office or at home. As a result, they cannot understand why "deliverables are never on time" or why dates are "always slipping".
There are good reasons for meeting regularly in the office, but "attendance management" is not one of them. With proactive time management in your teams, you will very quickly have the data that will allow you to understand if problems exist, and help you strategized how to correct them.
What kind of time management do you practice for yourself or your teams? Are they engaged and actively participating in it, or are they merely submitting to it ?
Please share your experience in the comments.
Talk to you soon,
Thomas